The Development of the Self-Concept during the Adolescent Years

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Abstract
The study of self-concept development during the adolescent years has been plagued by the failure of researchers to assess both continuity/discontinuity and stability/instability. As a result, the stereotype of adolescence as a time of storm and stress and significant change in self-concept has prospered. The current study was undertaken to provide data pertinent to these 2 aspects of development. A 3 yr longitudinal study was conducted with students in grades 5-12. The initial sample was retested each year, and a new sample of subjects was added in each grade level each year. The instrument was a semantic differential scale composed of 21 bipolar adjective pairs separated by a 7 point scale. The concept rated was my characteristic self. Factor analyses of the data for the 3 cross-sectional samples, for each sex, and for the longitudinal sample each revealed 4 factors: adjustment, achievement/leadership, congeniality/sociability and masculinity/femininity. Analyses of factor scores revealed sex differences consistent with sex-role stereotypes. The analyses of grade level differences in self-concept, however, did not replicate across the 3 cross-sectional samples, casting doubt on the value of cross-sectional data for describing adolescent development. The longitudinal analyses indicated that adolescent self-concept developed in a continuous and stable way. Other analyses indicated that the results were not contaminated by retesting, subject attrition, cohort, or time of measurement effects. The context of conceptualizations of adolescence were discussed. They do not support discontinuity views of adolescence. Rather, adolescent self-concept is a result of continual and gradual growth based not only on social circumstances, but also on emergent cognitive competencies and skills.

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